*The teacher should explain and demonstrate reciprocal teaching often by thinking aloud and stopping to ask questions, summarize, predict, and clarify.
*Know your students and what they need. This should be your focus in meeting with small groups of students. Refer back to Guided Reading and/or Focus Lessons under Literature Circles to know how to access, evaluate, plan, instruct, and scaffold your support.
*Form small, heterogeneous groups to try this procedure.
*Make a chart or bookmark with the procedure on it for the students to refer to.
*Review with the students what each of the components means. Often, teachers will only focus on one component, such as summarize , until the groups are familiar with it, before moving on to the next component.
*Remember that you do not have to do all the components each time. Stay tuned in to what the student's needs are and what your focus is.
*Use these terms in other content areas such as social studies or science.
*Keep individual track of how each student is doing in terms of comprehension, fluency, and problem-solving strategies so that you can better scaffold your instruction and support.
*It seems to take several months of practice (about 20 sessions) for students to get really good at this process.
STUDENT PROMPTS FOR RECIPROCAL TEACHING
Questioning
*One question I had about what I read was...
*What were you thinking about as you were reading?
*What question(s) can you ask about what you read?
*I'm curious about...
Clarifying
*One of the words I wasn't sure about was...
*What other words do we know that we can use in place of...?
*What words or ideas need clarifying for you?
*This is confusing to me. I need to (strategy) to try to figure out this word.
Predicting
*I can look at the title and all the visual clues on the page. What do I think we will be reading about?
*Thinking about what I have read and discussed, what do I think might happen next?
I wonder...
I predict...
Summarizing
*What does the author want me to remember or learn from this passage?
*What is the most important information in this passage?
*What kind of "teacher" questions can I ask about the main idea?
*In my own words, this is about...
*The main point was...
*The author wanted me to remember...
WHAT IS RECIPROCAL TEACHING?
RECIPROCAL TEACHING: THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS
Reciprocal teaching was first described by Ann Brown, Annemarie Palinesar, and Bonnie Armbruster as a method for helping students who could read but had trouble comprehending and remembering information from expository texts used in social studies and science classroooms. Reciprocal teaching involves explicit instruction of the comprehension fostering skills of predicting, summarizing, clarifying, and questioning. Visualization has been added by practicioners who have seen the value of direct instruction in this skill also. These five skills have been observed to be those that good readers do naturally, but that must be taught to struggling or underprepared readers.
Recriprocal teaching gets its name from the nature of student collaboration. After learnning the five skills, each student not only is responsible for preparing to facilitate his or her particular task (as summarizer, predictor, etc.) but also for adding to and commenting on the work of others in his or her group as they discuss a text: thus the reciprocity occurs.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
A group of students read a text together chunk by chunk, and then, through discussion, help each other understand the content.
HOW DO STUDENTS DO THIS?
Students understand the content by having a facused, structured conversation about the text. The students are responsible for collaborating to make meaning.
HOW DO STUDENTS LEARN HOW TO DO THIS?
The teacher explicitly teaches students to become good readers by showing them how to comprehend text using five key strategies: summarizing, predicting, clarifying, questioning, and visualizing.
HOW DOES RECIPROCAL TEACHING FIT INTO WHAT TEACHERS ARE ALREADY DOING?
Reciprocal teaching is a process and a structure into which most comprehension strategies fit. There are a variety of ways to teach the five key strategies of summaizing, predicting, clarifying, questioning, and visualizing. As long as discussion is structured around these five key areas, teachers should continue using all the effective strategies they have always used. Placing all strategies under the umbrella of the five key areas will help both studenrts and teacher stay focused.
WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED?
Reciprocal teaching is appropriate for all cotent areas and forms of text, and provides for full participation of all students, regardless of reading ability.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT RECIPROCAL TEACHING
1. Systematically teach students what good readers do; that is, make the five strategies explicit.
2. Model and teach each strategy individually in any order that makes sense to you.
3. Give students many opportunities to reflect on each strategy and their reading in general.
4. Use visual aids such as strategy cards, overheads, and posters to reinforce learning.
5. Move students into reciprocal teaching groups after teaching them each strategy in depth. Once students understand them, they will use them in groups.
6. Give students multiple opportunities to read in groups and make sure each student becomes proficient in each strategy.
7. Understand that reciprocal teaching should be used throughout the year until students internalize the strategies.
8. Use reciprocal teaching in all content area classes where reading takes place.
RECIPROCAL TEACHING PROCESS
IN GROUPS OF FIVE, STUDENTS READ AND DISCUSS THE TEXT USING THE FIVE RECIPROCAL TEACHING STRATEGIES. EACH STUDENT TAKES A DIFFERENT ROLE.
STRATEGY --- "READ" ACTIVITY --- THE STUDENTS READ THE SECTION.
STRATEGY --- "PREDICT" ACTIVITY --- THE PREDICTOR MAKES A PREDICTION AND GIVES EVIDENCE. THE OTHER STUDENTS CAN ADD IDEAS.
STRATEGY --- "VISUALIZE" ACTIVITY --- THE VISUALIZER DRAWS A REPRESENTATION OF THE MOST IMORTANT INFORMATION FROM THE PASSAGE. THE OTHER STUDENTS CAN ADD IDEAS.
STRATEGY --- "CLARIFY" ACTIVITY --- THE CLARIFIER IDENTIFIES UNFAMILIAR VOCABULARY WORDS OR DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND CONCEPTS. THE OTHER STUDENTS TRY TO FIGURE IT/THEM OUT.
STRATEGY --- "QUESTION" ACTIVITY --- THE QUESTIONER ASKS TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF QUESTIONS. THE OTHER STUDENTS ANSWER AND CAN ADD THEIR OWN QUESTIONS.
STRATEGY --- "SUMMARIZE" ACTIVITY --- THE SUMMARIZER EXPLAINS THE MEANING OF THE PASSAGE, USING THE INFORMATION FROM THE VISUALIZER AND QUESTIONER. THE OTHER STUDENTS ALSO ADD TO THE SUMMARY.
EACH STUDENT KEEPS HIS/HER ROLE FOR THE ENTIRE RECIPROCAL TEACHING DISCUSSION. THEY CHANGE ROLES THE NEXT TIME THEY MEET TO READ.
S T U D E N T A C T I V I T Y
"P R E D I C T I N G"
WHEN WE PREDICT AS WE'RE READING, WE LISTEN FOR CLUES THAT TELL US WHAT MAY HAPPEN NEXT. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES TO PREDICT BETTER:
*List known facts and read for clues for future facs/events/etc.
*Ask ourselves: What will the author tell us next? Why do we think that?
*Ask ourselves what we hope will happen.
*Ask ourselves what will likely happen and compare the two.
*Write down our predictions.
*Check our predictions. If we were right, ask ourselves how we knew.
*If we were wrong about our predictions, ask ourselves how we could have known.
*Ask ourselves if we missed any clues.
"V I S U A L I Z I N G"
VISUALIZING, OR PICTURING THE TEXT IN OUR IMAGINATION, CAN HELP US BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE READING. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES VISUALIZE BETTER:
*Think about the relationships of words or ideas and organize them graphically.
*Describe what we saw in our heads.
*Practice "reading" pictures to someone else.
"C L A R I F Y I N G"
CONFUSION CAN HAPPEN AT BOTH THE WORD LEVEL AND THE IDEA LEVEL. WHEN THAT HAPPENS, WE NEED TO STOP READING AND CLARIFY (MAKE CLEAR) WHAT WE DON'T UNDERSTAND IN THE TEXT. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES CLARIFY BETTER:
*Identify unknown words or concepts.
*Reread the text or read ahead.
*Look at the concept around the word or concept.
Use pictures or grahic clues.
"Q U E S T I O N I N G"
WHEN WE DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE READING, WE ASK QUESTIONS OF OURSELVES, THE TEXT, AND THE AUTHOR TO HELP US COMPREHEND. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES QUESTION BETTER:
*QUESTION OURSELVES: "Do we really understand that word? Or that concept?"
*QUESTION THE AUTHOR: "Why would Harper Lee make Atticus so different from the other people of Macomb?"
*QUESTION THE TEXT WITH...: "Above the Surface" questions that start with: Who? What? When? Where? How?
*QUESTION THE TEXT WITH...: "Under the Surface" questions that start with: Why? Would? Should? Could?
*LEARN TO ASK FOUR TYPES OF QUESTIONS:
RIGHT THERE: The answer can be found word-for-word in the text.
THINK AND SEARCH: The answer is in the text but we need to search different sections of the text.
AUTHOR AND ME: The answer is partly in the text, but we need background knowledge of the topic, or we need to check another source to find the answer.
ON OUR OWN: We need to read the text but the answer depends on out experences. Readers must defend their answers.
"S U M M A R I Z I N G"
A SUMMARY IS A SHORT VERSION OF A TEXT THAT HAS ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT IDEAS. A GOOD SUMMARY DOES NOT INCLUDE UNIMPORTANT DETAILS. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES SUMARIZE BETTER:
*Group the important nouns and tell how they are related.
*Group the important verbs and tell how they are related.
*Write a ten word sentence that retells the message.
*Write dialogue between the characters of a story or informational piece summarizing the major events, actions, conflicts, etc.
RECIPROCAL TEACHING IN YOUR CLASSROOM
*The teacher should explain and demonstrate reciprocal teaching often by thinking aloud and stopping to ask questions, summarize, predict, and clarify.
*Know your students and what they need. This should be your focus in meeting with small groups of students. Refer back to Guided Reading and/or Focus Lessons under Literature Circles to know how to access, evaluate, plan, instruct, and scaffold your support.
*Form small, heterogeneous groups to try this procedure.
*Make a chart or bookmark with the procedure on it for the students to refer to.
*Review with the students what each of the components means. Often, teachers will only focus on one component, such as summarize , until the groups are familiar with it, before moving on to the next component.
*Remember that you do not have to do all the components each time. Stay tuned in to what the student's needs are and what your focus is.
*Use these terms in other content areas such as social studies or science.
*Keep individual track of how each student is doing in terms of comprehension, fluency, and problem-solving strategies so that you can better scaffold your instruction and support.
*It seems to take several months of practice (about 20 sessions) for students to get really good at this process.
STUDENT PROMPTS FOR RECIPROCAL TEACHING
Questioning
*One question I had about what I read was...
*What were you thinking about as you were reading?
*What question(s) can you ask about what you read?
*I'm curious about...
Clarifying
*One of the words I wasn't sure about was...
*What other words do we know that we can use in place of...?
*What words or ideas need clarifying for you?
*This is confusing to me. I need to (strategy) to try to figure out this word.
Predicting
*I can look at the title and all the visual clues on the page. What do I think we will be reading about?
*Thinking about what I have read and discussed, what do I think might happen next?
I wonder...
I predict...
Summarizing
*What does the author want me to remember or learn from this passage?
*What is the most important information in this passage?
*What kind of "teacher" questions can I ask about the main idea?
*In my own words, this is about...
*The main point was...
*The author wanted me to remember...
WHAT IS RECIPROCAL TEACHING?
RECIPROCAL TEACHING: THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS
Reciprocal teaching was first described by Ann Brown, Annemarie Palinesar, and Bonnie Armbruster as a method for helping students who could read but had trouble comprehending and remembering information from expository texts used in social studies and science classroooms. Reciprocal teaching involves explicit instruction of the comprehension fostering skills of predicting, summarizing, clarifying, and questioning. Visualization has been added by practicioners who have seen the value of direct instruction in this skill also. These five skills have been observed to be those that good readers do naturally, but that must be taught to struggling or underprepared readers.
Recriprocal teaching gets its name from the nature of student collaboration. After learnning the five skills, each student not only is responsible for preparing to facilitate his or her particular task (as summarizer, predictor, etc.) but also for adding to and commenting on the work of others in his or her group as they discuss a text: thus the reciprocity occurs.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
A group of students read a text together chunk by chunk, and then, through discussion, help each other understand the content.
HOW DO STUDENTS DO THIS?
Students understand the content by having a facused, structured conversation about the text. The students are responsible for collaborating to make meaning.
HOW DO STUDENTS LEARN HOW TO DO THIS?
The teacher explicitly teaches students to become good readers by showing them how to comprehend text using five key strategies: summarizing, predicting, clarifying, questioning, and visualizing.
HOW DOES RECIPROCAL TEACHING FIT INTO WHAT TEACHERS ARE ALREADY DOING?
Reciprocal teaching is a process and a structure into which most comprehension strategies fit. There are a variety of ways to teach the five key strategies of summaizing, predicting, clarifying, questioning, and visualizing. As long as discussion is structured around these five key areas, teachers should continue using all the effective strategies they have always used. Placing all strategies under the umbrella of the five key areas will help both studenrts and teacher stay focused.
WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED?
Reciprocal teaching is appropriate for all cotent areas and forms of text, and provides for full participation of all students, regardless of reading ability.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT RECIPROCAL TEACHING
1. Systematically teach students what good readers do; that is, make the five strategies explicit.
2. Model and teach each strategy individually in any order that makes sense to you.
3. Give students many opportunities to reflect on each strategy and their reading in general.
4. Use visual aids such as strategy cards, overheads, and posters to reinforce learning.
5. Move students into reciprocal teaching groups after teaching them each strategy in depth. Once students understand them, they will use them in groups.
6. Give students multiple opportunities to read in groups and make sure each student becomes proficient in each strategy.
7. Understand that reciprocal teaching should be used throughout the year until students internalize the strategies.
8. Use reciprocal teaching in all content area classes where reading takes place.
RECIPROCAL TEACHING PROCESS
IN GROUPS OF FIVE, STUDENTS READ AND DISCUSS THE TEXT USING THE FIVE RECIPROCAL TEACHING STRATEGIES. EACH STUDENT TAKES A DIFFERENT ROLE.
STRATEGY --- "READ"
ACTIVITY --- THE STUDENTS READ THE SECTION.
STRATEGY --- "PREDICT"
ACTIVITY --- THE PREDICTOR MAKES A PREDICTION AND GIVES EVIDENCE. THE OTHER STUDENTS CAN ADD IDEAS.
STRATEGY --- "VISUALIZE"
ACTIVITY --- THE VISUALIZER DRAWS A REPRESENTATION OF THE MOST IMORTANT INFORMATION FROM THE PASSAGE. THE OTHER STUDENTS CAN ADD IDEAS.
STRATEGY --- "CLARIFY"
ACTIVITY --- THE CLARIFIER IDENTIFIES UNFAMILIAR VOCABULARY WORDS OR DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND CONCEPTS. THE OTHER STUDENTS TRY TO FIGURE IT/THEM OUT.
STRATEGY --- "QUESTION"
ACTIVITY --- THE QUESTIONER ASKS TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF QUESTIONS. THE OTHER STUDENTS ANSWER AND CAN ADD THEIR OWN QUESTIONS.
STRATEGY --- "SUMMARIZE"
ACTIVITY --- THE SUMMARIZER EXPLAINS THE MEANING OF THE PASSAGE, USING THE INFORMATION FROM THE VISUALIZER AND QUESTIONER. THE OTHER STUDENTS ALSO ADD TO THE SUMMARY.
EACH STUDENT KEEPS HIS/HER ROLE FOR THE ENTIRE RECIPROCAL TEACHING DISCUSSION. THEY CHANGE ROLES THE NEXT TIME THEY MEET TO READ.
S T U D E N T A C T I V I T Y
"P R E D I C T I N G"
WHEN WE PREDICT AS WE'RE READING, WE LISTEN FOR CLUES THAT TELL US WHAT MAY HAPPEN NEXT. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES TO PREDICT BETTER:
*List known facts and read for clues for future facs/events/etc.
*Ask ourselves: What will the author tell us next? Why do we think that?
*Ask ourselves what we hope will happen.
*Ask ourselves what will likely happen and compare the two.
*Write down our predictions.
*Check our predictions. If we were right, ask ourselves how we knew.
*If we were wrong about our predictions, ask ourselves how we could have known.
*Ask ourselves if we missed any clues.
"V I S U A L I Z I N G"
VISUALIZING, OR PICTURING THE TEXT IN OUR IMAGINATION, CAN HELP US BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE READING. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES VISUALIZE BETTER:
*Use our senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, tasting.
*Picture concrete items.
*Think about the relationships of words or ideas and organize them graphically.
*Describe what we saw in our heads.
*Practice "reading" pictures to someone else.
"C L A R I F Y I N G"
CONFUSION CAN HAPPEN AT BOTH THE WORD LEVEL AND THE IDEA LEVEL. WHEN THAT HAPPENS, WE NEED TO STOP READING AND CLARIFY (MAKE CLEAR) WHAT WE DON'T UNDERSTAND IN THE TEXT. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES CLARIFY BETTER:
*Identify unknown words or concepts.
*Reread the text or read ahead.
*Look at the concept around the word or concept.
Use pictures or grahic clues.
"Q U E S T I O N I N G"
WHEN WE DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE READING, WE ASK QUESTIONS OF OURSELVES, THE TEXT, AND THE AUTHOR TO HELP US COMPREHEND. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES QUESTION BETTER:
*QUESTION OURSELVES: "Do we really understand that word? Or that concept?"
*QUESTION THE AUTHOR: "Why would Harper Lee make Atticus so different from the other people of Macomb?"
*QUESTION THE TEXT WITH...: "Above the Surface" questions that start with: Who? What? When? Where? How?
*QUESTION THE TEXT WITH...: "Under the Surface" questions that start with: Why? Would? Should? Could?
*LEARN TO ASK FOUR TYPES OF QUESTIONS:
RIGHT THERE: The answer can be found word-for-word in the text.
THINK AND SEARCH: The answer is in the text but we need to search different sections of the text.
AUTHOR AND ME: The answer is partly in the text, but we need background knowledge of the topic, or we need to check another source to find the answer.
ON OUR OWN: We need to read the text but the answer depends on out experences. Readers must defend their answers.
"S U M M A R I Z I N G"
A SUMMARY IS A SHORT VERSION OF A TEXT THAT HAS ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT IDEAS. A GOOD SUMMARY DOES NOT INCLUDE UNIMPORTANT DETAILS. STRATEGIES TO HELP OURSELVES SUMARIZE BETTER:
*Group the important nouns and tell how they are related.
*Group the important verbs and tell how they are related.
*Write a ten word sentence that retells the message.
*Write dialogue between the characters of a story or informational piece summarizing the major events, actions, conflicts, etc.